Facebook satellite lost in SpaceX explosion at Cape Canaveral (VIDEO)

A Falcon 9 booster rocket exploded on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as tropical storm Hermine bore down on the area. An Israeli satellite that was to provide Facebook broadband to Africa was lost in the explosion, SpaceX confirmed.

Citing NASA security, one source reported that the rocket blew up during “wet dress rehearsal.” This is the type of pre-launch test that uses actual liquid propellant, but may or may not involve the payload.

Thursday's explosion did not involve a reused Falcon 9 booster. SpaceX announced on Tuesday that it would use a recovered rocket to launch a SES communications satellite "later this year," probably sometime in December.

The explosion will set back NASA efforts to use SpaceX vehicles for getting astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station, Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, told RT.

“It’s a big setback,” said Gagnon. NASA is “trying to find someone to shuttle supplies and astronauts to the ISS, since the US has begun its recent demonization of Russia. That relationship, where Russia was delivering astronauts to the space station, has really been now cast aside. So SpaceX is going to be the predominant delivery service. This launch failure, with this explosion of the rocket, is really going to put a real crimp in NASA’s launch program.”